Durant helps Thunder thump Hornets

Published December 02, 2012

| Sports Network

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New Orleans, LA – Kevin Durant poured in 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds, despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter, to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 100-79 win over the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday.

Russell Westbrook had 18 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and three steals
and Kevin Martin added 19 points for the Thunder, who have won five straight.

Nick Collison added 12 points and Kendrick Perkins chipped in with 10 points
in the victory.

"If you contest shots in this league you usually make the teams miss, and this
is what we did tonight," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "We did a good job
rebounding, and it was just a good offensive game and defensive game for us."

Ryan Anderson had 21 points and 10 rebounds and Robin Lopez netted 12 for the
Hornets, who have dropped nine of their last 10 overall.

"They were taking it to the basket, they were the aggressor out there,"
Hornets forward Jason Smith said. "We knew the first game (earlier this
season) they were hitting the outside shot. We ran out hard, a lot of times
too hard, and they just had a lot of drives on us."

Oklahoma City led 30-21 after the first quarter. Martin led the way in the
first with eight points while Perkins and Westbrook each added six in the
frame for the Thunder. OKC shot 60 percent from the field in the quarter, and
forced seven turnovers.

Oklahoma City led 45-27 near the midway point of the second period, but an
8-0 run by New Orleans made it a 10-point game. A Perkins tip-in followed by a
Westbrook 3-pointer gave the Thunder a 50-35 lead with just over three minutes
to play, but the Hornets outscored OKC 9-4 the rest of the way, and trailed
54-44 at the break.

The Thunder busted the game open in the third, outscoring New Orleans 30-13 in
the period. Oklahoma City shot 63.2 percent from the floor, and were 4-for-6
from 3-point range, in the quarter while holding the Hornets to just 30
percent shooting from the field.

OKC called the dogs off in the fourth and sat its starters over the final 12
minutes. New Orleans outscored the Thunder, 22-16, in the frame, but it wasn't
nearly enough as Oklahoma City cruised to its fourth double-digit win in a
row.

Game Notes

The Thunder have outscored their opponents 556-449 over the five-game winning
streak ... OKC forced 17 turnovers ... The Thunder were 7-for-16 from 3-point
range. The Hornets were just 6-for-24 from behind the arc ... Anderson posted
at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in three games this season and has four
double-doubles on the year.